The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 10 eBook

once. And should we not be indulgent with our
opponents, if we ourselves do not desist from fighting?
Life is a struggle everywhere in nature, and without
inner struggles we end by being like the Chinese,
and become petrified. No struggle, no life!
Only, in every fight where the national question arises,
there must be a rallying point. For us this is
the empire, not as it may seem to be desirable, but
as it is, the empire and the Emperor, who represents
it. That is why I ask you to join me in wishing
well to the Emperor and the empire. I hope that
in 1950 all of you who are still living will again
respond with contented hearts to the toast

LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR AND THE EMPIRE!

THE LIFE OF MOLTKE

BY KARL DETLEV JESSEN, PH.D.

Professor of German Literature, Bryn Mawr College

To relate, in detail, the story of the life of General-Fieldmarshal
Graf Helmuth von Moltke—­or, as we shall
briefly call him, Moltke—­means to give
an account of that memorable phase of modern history,
perhaps, so far as Europe is concerned, the most important
of the nineteenth century. This was the ascendency
of Prussia, of her king and of her people, culminating
in the unification and the consolidation of most of
the German states into one great empire, with all
its realization of military and political power, of
social, economic, and, in a wide sense, of cultural
eminence and efficiency. The barest outlines,
however, must suffice for the present purpose.

Moltke was born at the threshold of the century the
history of which he so prominently helped to shape,
on October 26, 1800, at Parchim in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
On his father’s side he descended from a family
of the North German gentry which had come to various
degrees of prominence in some German as well as Scandinavian
states. No doubt he inherited the military instinct
from this race of warriors, statesmen, and landholders;
a race the characteristic traits of which indicated
the line along which he was bound to develop, the
field in which he was to manifest his greatest achievements.
But there is just as little doubt that all the elements
of character which exalted his military gifts and
instincts into an almost antique nobility, simplicity,
and grandeur—­his dignity, purity, dutifulness,
his profound religious devotion, and sense of humor—­came
to him from his mother, who was descended from an
ancient patrician family of the little republican
commonwealth, the once famous Hansatown of Luebeck.
How far the Huguenot strain may have influenced him,
through his paternal grandmother, is hard to tell,
since we know but little of Charlotte d’Olivet.